Bright and Brilliant
by ImaginaryEngineer
Summary: Akko's landed herself in a situation that earns herself a free lesson in Magical Astronomy from Diana. (1/7 Entry for Dianakko Week 2017)


**Bright and Brilliant**

Day 1 - Astrology/Stars  
Akko (3rd Person POV) /Diana

1/7 Dianakko Week 2017

* * *

"Tia Freyre!" She screamed with all her might, focus all on the broom, wishing, internally praying for a miracle to happen. Yes, she wanted to fly again. Yes, she wanted it now.

But with all of her wanting, wishing, hoping, her feet remained flat on the ground.

"Akko, give it up. I don't think you'll be able to fly today." Sucy was sitting at the edge of the ledge. Everyone was too busy that day. Professor Chariot was out running errands. Amanda's back in detention for flying rampantly again, this time nearly injuring a couple of the students, during their flying class. Diana couldn't, saying that she had something to study. Lotte had a little group meeting with Barbara and the other Nightfall fans of Luna Nova. She was left to babysit Akko—although Akko was hesitant to call looking out for her 'babysitting'.

"I'm done with this book. I'm going to continue to study in the room instead. It's been hours and you haven't gotten yourself off of the ground."

"I was able to get myself to fly around Luna Nova the other week and I'm going to have to replicate that again. Practice makes perfect and for me to be like Shiny Chariot, I'll have to practice!" She grunted, a little hurt that Sucy's going to abandon her without even seeing her fly. "Don't leave now or you'll might miss the first show!"

Sucy stood up, schoolbook tucked in hand and walked towards the entrance of the tower. "I'm going ahead, Akko. Good luck with your flight. You try not to get caught in one of the trees or the short bushes."

"Oi Sucy!" She grunted, gripping her broom a little tighter. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

Sucy sighed, the thought of Akko's overestimation of her magical abilities paired up with this undying need to be a magical entertainer was one hell of a deadly combination. "I admire your drive to be like Shiny Chariot. But your broom control is out of hand and your landing skills are not as great as you think it is."

"Nonsense! My landing skills are amazing and I'm going to make spectacular flying moves and give everyone a really good show!"

"Be careful," were Sucy's last words before she went in the nearest entrance to the school.

Akko huffed. "Fine!"

It took her a couple of more tries after Sucy left that she was able to get her broom finally off of the ground.

"Okay…" She managed to get herself afloat. Now to try to get her to a good altitude.

She concentrated all of her energy to get high, and she shot up in the air too quick, feeling like her insides—soul included—were left back on the ground.

"Stoooop!" She screamed and her broom immediately halted. Good thing she hung on tightly, she almost flung herself towards the roof.

The breeze was cool from this altitude, the sun stung her skin a bit more, and the school didn't look monstrous at all. She could hardly make out the students passing through the windows on the top floor.

"This is cool."

She practiced—warmed up, in her terms. Going forward and backwards at a slow pace then turning a bit Once she got a little comfortable, she a little bit of a flip—it didn't play out as extraordinary in her mind but at least she was still on her broom with no scratches or bruises.

"Now I'm all warmed up. Time to crank this up, Amanda-style." She smiled, glancing back at the entrance Sucy took, "Too bad no one's going to witness the awesome show I'm going to put up, _Sucy._ No worries, I'm gonna do another show." She leant forward, gripping her broom and yelled, "FULL SPEED AHEAD!"

It was perfect in her head, she had it all rehearsed. She'd do around three or four flips, at a neck breaking speed exactly like Amanda, then she's going to land safely and securely on the ground where she took off.

Her broom took off at lightning speed away from Luna Nova. She then focused on turning, it didn't work—she was still moving forward. Faster. Further and further away from school.

The initial excitement that she had was soon replaced by panic. She had to turn back—forget the flips. She couldn't turn, her arms already tugging the handle at full force and it didn't work. "Goo back! Go back!" She yelled, but instead, her broom took an angle towards the ground, still at full speed.

"OH NO!"

She crashed into a small bush but she didn't stop. She continued to roll out of it and onto the plains. It was sky, tree, grass, ground. Sky, trees, grass, ground again and again until she hit her back on the trunk of a small tree with her legs up.

 _Crap._

She rolled on to her side before sitting up, looking around her. She's stuck somewhere in the middle of the vast plains surrounding Luna Nova.

At night—the sun setting at the worst time ever.

Alone.

She checked around for her broom, seeing that it smashed right into the tree with her. She had the handle a few inches away from her hand, the brush part lodged on one of the other bushes near the tree she crashed in.

Walking over to the bush, she pulled the other half from it. Her back hurt, her shoulders hurt, her legs full of scratches and her face all scuffed, she's sure that she's going to have to go to the nurses office to get patched up.

She tried to put stick both ends together. Hustling her pockets for something to tie the ends together, probably a hair tie, a band aid, or something.

"Akko?"

Amidst her frustration, she looked to the left to see, "Diana?"

Shoving the aching pain and the frustration to the back of her mind, she flashed her an arrogant yet goofy grin. No way was she going to show her rival that she's weak. Besides, those were all simple scratches and bruises, not something she hasn't dealt with in the past.

"What are you doing here?"

"None of your business," she hid her broken broom behind her, its handle still peeking from over her right shoulder. "What are you doing here?"

"It shouldn't be your concern, but since you asked politely," the word _politely_ carrying a slightly sarcastic tone that the rest. "The southern plains provides the perfect view of the sky in West England since we're far from the city and the lights. This time is perfect for viewing the sky. It's vital to observe astrological movements so that the readings I get from Magical Astronomy would be accurate."

"Aren't your readings already perfect?" Akko crossed her arms, a frown forming across her face recalling the last time Diana predicted her future. "What's the need to observe them now?"

"Added knowledge."

"You're such a nerd." Akko's answer was unexpected, Diana answering with both her brows high. "I don't think anyone thinks that studying as a hobby is good. It's too nerdy! Don't you feel lonely doing this alone?"

"Care to study with me then?" Diana asked almost immediately, eyes wide soon after she realized exactly what she said.

The both of them shared a look, Diana's mouth slightly open and her eyes wide while Akko tilting her head, unsure what to make of Diana's invitation.

She couldn't even land her broom properly, she's not exactly sure how she'll do trying to read the movements of heavenly bodies. But, if Diana invited her to study with her, what's the harm? It's not like she had anywhere to go. Diana's offered her free lessons in different subjects in the past, this one's probably going to help her—in one way or another.

"Shiny Chariot didn't need to learn Astrology, but I guess I should since it's a subject, right?"

Diana chuckled and placed a hand on Akko's shoulder. "Astro _nomy_ , Akko. Magical Astronomy. Not Astro _logy_."

"Oh, uh. Right." Akko hiding her shame behind one of her biggest smiles. "I don't have any plans to become a really good fortune teller anyway." She sounded proud, arrogant even. " She held her right hand high, the broken part of her broom pointing towards the sky. "I'm going to be exactly like Shiny Chariot! I'm going to put up amazing show after amazing show, placing smiles and hopes and dreams with my magic!"

Diana let out another chuckle. "No less, I hope." She was being ridiculous right now, they both knew it. But at least with this little _added knowledge_ , she'd be able to somehow achieve her dream.

After placing her broken broom beside Diana's things, Akko stood beside her. "The sky does look prettier from here than at school," she crossed her arms, a gentle breeze blowing her hair back. "But you know, the sky looks a lot more better on top of the atmosphere."

"Yes. It definitely is," Diana looked up, crossing her arms as well. "Unfortunately, the reach of the Sorceror's Stone is limited. The only reason we were able to stay up there was because of the Shooting Star. Without it, we would've fallen to our deaths."

"Yeah, _I knew that_ ," Akko laughed nervously. "It would've been nice if we could study the stars from up there. It'll be closer and you wouldn't have to deal with all those clouds in the way."

"We don't have enough magic to keep us up there and besides," with a wave of Diana's wand, the metal pieces from the Diana's bag assembled themselves into a telescope. "There are other ways."

"Huh. That's nifty. Why couldn't you do the hologram you pulled during exams?"

"It's going to take more than enough magical power to project a hologram for study. I'm going to need Professor Ursula's platform to be able to project real time movement of the planets and the stars which I don't have access to at the moment," she said as peered into the eye piece to see a very blurry picture of the moon. After fiddling with the focuser a bit—the moon was clearer and much more radiant—she backed off a bit, only to be surprised that Akko's face was inches from her own. "AKKO!" She screamed, taking a step back and shoving Akko with just enough force to almost tip her over.

"DIANA!" She screamed back as she tried to keep balance. "Hey! What was that about?"

Diana covered the lower half of her face. "I was surprised! I didn't expect you to be _right there_! Have you no concept of personal space?"

"I wanted to see too, you know."

Diana sighed. "I'll let you peek, but first I'm going to walk you through a few things."

Before bringing their focus to the telescope, Diana pointed out the basics to Akko. Simple constellations—Akko recognized at least 70% of them—to the planets to the further galaxies that looked list dust painted on the dark, night sky.

She'd then move around the telescope, letting Akko see them up close. And for every star, Akko found herself astounded. She's always heard of telescopes, she just wasn't able to use one before, they weren't that available back in Japan where she lived. It was an amazing experience to see all those heavenly bodies a little more personal and up close.

Soon after an hour or two into their little private lesson, Akko's seeing the sky in a whole new different light.

"That's Arcturus, one of the brightest stars in the night sky and is quite impossible to miss since it's part of Bootes…"

She wasn't listening anymore. Diana's voice, changing in pitch, pointing out to the stars as she explained them, her eyes wide, a grin still present through the words pouring out from her—this wasn't something she''d see everyday. In classes, Diana would answer, form stiff, voice monotonic, eyes closed—bored even. She gets bored in class too, like Akko. That's a relief.

Thinking about it, Diana had everything to be a great witch. She's has every potential to be a great witch—too many times Akko's come across her reading in the hallways, in the library or even in the confines of her own room—which looked like a smaller version of Luna Nova's own library. She loved to study. She loved learning.

She has everything she needed to become one.

And she's actually really nice. Maybe she came off as harsh towards Akko, but she was kind underneath all that tough façade she's putting up. She's offered Akko support, teaching her most times after class and keeping her out of trouble. Now that she thought about it, ever since they've broken the seal of the Grand Triskelion, she's been more of a presence in her life than any of the faculty out there.

And it isn't that Akko _wanted_ her to be there to help her or to support her. She's never asked actually. Diana was just… there.

She's smart, she's really good with her magic, she's kind & she's really good looking—Akko thankful a bit that it was already dark, because her cheeks were growing hot and she's sure her blush is not something she could hide if the sun was still out.

"Akko?"

"Uh, yeah?"

Diana gave her a small grin, closing her eyes, giggling a bit. "I thought I lost you there," she shook her head.

"No!" She stuttered defensively. "It's not that! Look I'm listening!" She stood up straight and took a deep breath. "I find the stars pretty! They're bright and they've got more shine and they've got some really cool movements that can predict certain situations and they're hot. The best one out there, which is my favorite by the way, is Eta Carnineeee?"

She tapped her forehead, trying to remember its name. "Eta Carinae? Eta Carinae! It's a rare hyper star, bigger that than sun even! No one's actually been able to understand it since it's really, really far away. But seeing it up close, there's more to learn from it! It's actually—" finally Diana opening her eyes, making full eye contact with the disaster Akko was slowly becoming.

"…a brilliant, stunning blue star."

"You seem to have gotten the gist of everything. I'm surprised, really, but let's wrap up," And in a flick of a wand, the telescope disappeared, only left to be a pile of raw materials that Diana brought in her bag a while ago. "It is a little late, we should head back. I'd prefer not to be the reason of you getting into trouble."

"Hey, I'm not that much of trouble maker." She pouted, then stood and patted down her uniform.

"Would you like a ride back?" Diana asked, slipping her bag onto her broom, soon settling herself on it for the flight back.

"With you?" Akko asked, sounding a little distressed.

The night wind gently blowing, the moonlight bringing out Diana's fair complexion, her eyes shining and her perfect hair caressed by the breeze, she answered, "Who else?"

"Y-Yeah!" She gathered up her broom really quickly, tying it to her back securely with her own belt. She ran over to Diana's back and hopped over Diana's broom.

"Hold on tight," Diana warned her. "I promise to get us there in one piece," she said before looking back to notice Akko's hesitation. She patted the hands gripping her waist, then said, "Don't worry. I'll take care of you. Okay?"

Akko held her as tight as she possibly could. Although she could feel herself shiver from the cold, Diana's warmth helped her senses calm down to a comfortable level. Comfortable enough that she was wishing that this flight back would take a lot longer than expected.

"Okay," she smiled.


End file.
